The "Horizon 2020 Mediterranean report - Toward shared environmental information systems" has been released today at the Union for the Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Environment and Climate Change (http://ufmsecretariat.org/union-for-the-mediterranean-ufm-ministerial-meeting-on-environment-and-climate-change/). The report is part of the mid-term review of the Horizon 2020 Initiative which aims to reduce pollution in the Mediterranean by year 2020, and has been coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the United Nations Environment Programme/Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) with EC funding under the ENPI-SEIS project.

Based on the data and indicators reported by the Mediterranean partner countries and country analyses, the objective of the H2020 Mediterranean report is twofold: firstly, to inform on the pollution levels in the region, and, secondly, to take stock of progress made at regional and national levels in monitoring this progress.

The H2020 Mediterranean report is structured in three parts:

The first part provides a synthesis describing the process in setting-up a regular review mechanism and listing key recommendations.

The second part develops a regional analysis based on the key indicators agreed in the framework of the H2020 Review and Monitoring sub-group. This part highlights the major drivers of environmental changes in the Mediterranean region and their implications on the protection of the marine environment and puts emphasis on thematic assessments of the three H2020 priority areas (waste water and sanitation; solid municipal waste; and industrial emissions) developed on the basis of the data and information reported by the South Mediterranean Partners countries.

The third part gathers analyses written by the countries on the three H2020 priority areas (waste water and sanitation, solid municipal waste and industrial emissions), addresses specific country situations, existing national actions being taken and their associated problems and solutions.